Rachel Thorlby at Madder 139

Rachel Thorlby at Madder 139

07 May, 2010
by: Claire_loves_jam

Highly regarded contemporary artist Rachel Thorlby has a new solo show at Madder 139. Claire Shropshall is disappointed.

Ah Vyner Street on the first Thursday of the month – the epicentre of London’s booming East End art scene, a hub for cheap beer, trendy haircuts and ironic moustaches, and a great opportunity to engage with contemporary art. Sadly the nature of the beast – modern art being in a constant state of change, intensely subjective and open to interpretation – means you won’t always like what you see, and tonight’s offerings aren’t exactly doing it for me.

That’s not to say that art shouldn’t challenge, perplex or enrage. But tonight I can’t help feeling anything but apathy as I explore Rachel Thorlby’s busts, statues and collages which form the crux of her drive to critique the entrenched ideals we have concerning significant historical events.

Madder 139 is an intimate tin-can of an exhibition space and there are plenty of jostling elbows and awkward apologies as fellow art-goers crane their necks to examine the work on display. Initially we’re confronted with a somewhat dismembered sculpture of the Pope – I’m not sure what to make of his floating, white torso and warily positioned feet, his hands hanging limp and confused. I think the point here, as well as with the crudely constructed busts in the corner of the room, is to take powerful individuals from the past and reconfigure our perceptions of their social status. The rich and heroic, traditionally commemorated in marble, bronze or stone, are consigned to humble plaster, paper and polystyrene. 

I can see the artist’s intentions; a certain joy in mocking major historical narratives – decapitating those ‘heroes’ from our past whose power may have stemmed from suppression of the masses. Power to the people. But the battered, simple and somewhat unambitious sculptures before us aren’t inspiring me – I’m just a bit confused.

A reworking of Bertel Thorvaldsen’s bust of the Honourable Mrs Pellew transforms a once regal, marble figure into a rough, cracked sculpture with a mop of crude, bright yellow hair which drips across her face thanks to the careless application of paint. The delicate materials are allowed to run and ooze all over Thorlby’s sculptures to emphasise, in her own words, “a state of flux”. Mrs Pellew has indeed been knocked off her stately perch and into the proverbial stocks, but I’m still not convinced that this visual mockery of the gilded rich and famous actually marks a “new social order” as Thorlby seems to intend.

Downstairs a series of collages use photographic landscapes of mountains, forests and bridges, each of which includes a silhouetted figure outlining an alternative landscape which is cut very precisely into the original photo. Again, these figures represent portraits of rich and powerful individuals from the past and aim to re-inform our understanding of these characters. Unfortunately I find myself, once again, uninspired and unresponsive – not really liking what I see, but unsure why.

If this is rewriting history, I think I’d prefer to stick with the cultural narratives that we’re used to. At least I can hate them for a reason.

Rachel Thorlby – The Immortality Drive is at Madder 139 until 30th May 2010.

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